Month: June 2012

Charles Colson recently died and went to heaven. For those of you not familiar with Mr. Colson, he was famous (or infamous) for being a Watergate operative under Richard Nixon, served time in prison for his part in Watergate, and then founded Prison Fellowship shortly after his stint in prison (see recent story published by World Magazine here).

What a great tale of a life that was headed one direction and then turned about-face and headed completely the other direction! It reminds me of a person who is unsaved. He is heading one direction (hell) and then meets Jesus and is born again. He is now saved and heading the other direction (heaven).

The Word of God plainly states that if a person is truly a Christian, their life will change:

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17

When does one know when you should fight against someone or for someone? Well, too often, we fight against those whom we should not – our spouses, our children, our parents, our co-workers, fellow church members, and so on.

Under the Old Testament law, God had established what we call the “eye for an eye” law. In other words, if someone has wronged you, then they deserve the same thing back. And then Jesus Christ (God in the flesh) came and upped the ante. He taught something contrary to what our old nature wants to do. Read below:

Matthew 5:43-44
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.

I recently read that great verse in Proverbs 24 which states, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again:…” One of the thoughts that my wife and I strive to ingrain in our children is that of not giving up.

Our two youngest boys have been playing baseball this summer. Due to the generosity of some people at our church, they are able to play in a summer league for most of the summer. Although our boys have never played baseball in a team setting and are learning many fundamentals of the game, one thing they have been learning all of their life is to not give up. Whether it be in a wrestling match, a baseball game, or that of the most challenging class they are taking at school, I want them to learn to give it their all right through to the end. So many young people today will not run as hard as they can to first base when they hit the ball to the pitcher – they give up. Too many young people when falling behind in a certain class or in a certain grade – they give up.